News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-12-15


nolnted men, with courage enough to &C
forth in the strength of the omni
potent Sod, with the glittering swords
of truth, to hew the way hack
again to that old we'll | think the tide is
turning, and that the old Gospel is to take its
place again in the family, and in the univer-
sity, and in the legislative hall. Men have
tried worldly philosophers, and have found
out that they do not give any comfort and
| that they drop an arctic midnight upon the
| death-pillow. They fail when there is a
dead child in the house; and when the soul
comes to leap into the fathomless ocean of
| eternity, they give to the man not so much
| as broken spar to cling to- Depend upon
| it, that well will come into our possession
again, though it has been captured. If there
| be not three anointed men IN the Lords
| host with enough conservation to do the work,
| then the swords will leap from Jehovah's
! buckler, and the eternal three will descend
| God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
| Ghost-conquering for our diving race the
! way back again to ''the water of the well of
| Bethlehem, which is by the gate" eff God
| be for us, who can be against u.s." ''If God
| spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up
for us all how shall he not with him also freely
| give us all thingSn' ''For | am persuaded
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come shall take from
us into final captivity, the Gospel of my
| blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
[ASilh buo COSpeI well, ike the one spoken
of IN my text, is a well at the gate. The
traveller stops the camel to-day, and gets
down and dips out of the valley of the East,
some very beautiful, clear, bright water, and
that IS out OF the very well that David longed
for. Do you know that that well was at
the gate, so that nobody could go into
Bethlehem without going right past it! And
so it is with this Gospel well-it is at the gate.
1t is, IN the first place. at the gate of purifica-
ton. We cannot wash away our sins unless
with that water. | take the responsibility
of saying that there is no man, woman, OF
child in this house to-day that
has escaped sinful deflement. Do you
say it is outrageous and ungallant
for me to make such charge DO you
say: 81 have never stolen-I have never
blasphemed-I have never committed un-
chastity have never been guilty of
murder q L reply, you have committed a
sin worse than blasphemy, worse than I'M
chastity, worse than theft, worse than muir
der. We have all committed it. We
have by our sins re-Crucified the Lord and
that is decide. And if there be any who dare
to plead mot guilty" to the Indictment, then
the hosts of heaven will be empaneled as a
jury to render unanimous verdict against
us; guilty one, guilty all. With what slash
ing stroke that one passage cuts us away
from all our pretensions. There is none
elat doeth good-no, not one" ''Oh," says
some one, All we want, all the race wants,
Is development" Now l want to tell you
that the race develops without the Gospel into
Sadom, a Five Points, a great Salt Lake
City. 1t always develops downward, and
| never upward, except as the grace of God lays
hold of it. What then, is to become of our soul
without Christ! Banishment. Disaster. But
bless my Lord Jesus Christ that there is
well at the gate of publication. For great
sin, great pardon. For eighty years of trans
erosion, an eternity. of forgiveness. For crime
deep as hell, an atOnement high as heaven
that where sin abounded, so grace may much
more abound; that as sin regned unto death,
even so may grace reign through righteous
ness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our
Lord Angel of the Covenant, dip thy wing
IN this living fountain to-day, and wave it
over this solemn assemblage, that our souls
may be washed in ''the water of the well of
Bethlehem, which is by the gate"
Further, | remark that this well of the
Gospel is at the gate of comfort. Do you
know where David was when he uttered the
words OF the text! He was in the cave of
AduLam. That is where some of YOU are
now. Has the world always gone smoothly
with you? Has it never pursued you
wit! Islander? Is your health always
good? Have your fortunes never
persisted? Are your children all alive and
well! Is there no dead lamb in the fold!
are you ignorant of the way to the cemetery?
Have you never heard the bell toll when it
seemed as If every stroke of the iron clapper
beat your heart! Are the skies as bright when
you look into them as they used to be
when other eyes, closed, used to
look into them! Is there some trunk or
drawer in your house that you go to only on
days, when there comes beating
against your soul the surf of great ocean of
agony! 1t is the cave of Adullaml The cave
OF Adullam! Is there some David here
whose fatherly heart hayward Absolom has
broken: Is there some Abraham here who is
lonely because Sarah is dead in the family
pot of Machpelah! After thirty or forty
years of companionship, how hard it was for
item to partl Why not have two seats in
the Lords chariot, so that both the old folks
might have gone up at once? My aged mother,
in her last moment, said to my father:' Father,
wouldn't it be nice if could both go to-
gether:n No, no, no. We must part. And
there are wounded hearers here today. The
world cannot comfort you. What can it
bring you? Nothing. Nothing. The salve
they try to put on your ounds will not stick.
They cannot, with their bungling surgery,
mend the broken bones.
Zoppar the Naamathite. and Bildad the
Shuttle, and Elphaz the Temanite, come in.
and talk and talk, and talk, but miserable
. light into the cave of Adullam. They can
not bring a single draught of water from
the well of Bethlehem, which is by
the gate But, glory be to Jesus
Christ, there is comfort at the gate!
There is life in the well at the gate If you
give me time, l win draw up a promise for
every man, woman and child in this house.
Ay, will do it in two minutes. Twill lay
hO'd the rope OF the old we'll What is your
trouble! Oh" you say, Il am so sick. SO
weary of ife-ailments after ailments" L
VIII draw up a promise: THE inhabitants
will never say 4 am sick" What is your
trouble? ''Oh, it is loss of friends-bereave-
ment," you say. l will draw you up a
PROMISE fresh and cool, out of the well. Il
am the resurrection and the life; he that be-
lieveth in me, though he were dead. yet shall
he live.n What is your trouble! You say it
is the infirmities of old age. | will draw you
up promise: Down to old age l am with
thee, TO hoary hairs will | carry thee
What is your trouble? 'Oh," you say. 81
have widowed soul and my children cry for
bread" bring up this promise: Leave thy
faith; riess chi dren-I VIII preserve them
alive, and let thy widows trust in me-" [
break through the armed ranks of your sor-
rows to-day, and bring to your parched lips
"a drink of the waters of the well of Bethle-
hem, which is by the gate.n
Again, the Gospel well is at the gate of
heaven. | have not heard yet one single in
te'ligent account of the future world from
anybody who does not believe in the Bible
They throw such fog about the subject that
l do not want to go to the skeptic's heaven. to
the Observation-Disclosures heaven, to the worldly
philosophers heaven. l would not exchange
the poorest room in your house for the finest
heaven that Huxley or Stuart Mill, or Oar
win ever dreamed of. Their heaven has no
Christ in it: and heaven without Christ,
though you COuNl sweep Une WnOle Universe
into it, would be a hell. Oh, they tell us
there are no songs there; there are no
cOronations in heaven-that is all i'm
ag.nation. They tell us we will dn
there about what we do here, only
on larger scae-geometrize with
clearer intellect, and with alpenstocI
go clambering up over the icebergs
in an eternal vacation. Rather than that,
turn to my Bible, and l find Johns picture
of that good land-that heaven which was
your lullaby in infancY-that heaven which
our chi dren in the Sabbath school will sing
about this afteTnoon-that heaven which has
! h5tvss on =. long Journey
| aud you come in, all bedusted and tired, to
! your home, the first thing you want is re
| freshing ablution, and [ am glad to know
age of this world-the hard, dusty pill
grimage-we will find a well al
the gate. In that one wash, away
will go our sins and sorrows. | do not
care whether cherub, seraph, or my owr
| departed friends in that blessed land place
! to my lips the cup, the touch of that cur
! viii he life, will be heaven? l read
| ing of how the ancients sought for the
| fountain of perpetual youth. They thought
if they could only find and drink out of that
well, the Old woal become young again, the
sick would be cured, and everybody would
| have eternal juvenescence. of course, they
could not find it. Eureka I have found it
THE water of the well of Bethlehem, which
is by the gate.n
| think we had better make a bargain with
those who leave us, going out of this world
| from time to time, to where we will meet
them. Travellers parting appoint place Of
meeting. They say, 1--WE will meet al
Rome, or we will meet at Stock